Belle laughed quietly and continued to rub Dejaal's stomach. "Yeah, we like big kitties."

Andy laughed.

"That we do," she agreed.

Belle grinned and stayed there, petting Dejaal contentedly.

Andy kept brushing Kaelas until the cat finally rolled back over and let her brush his back for a while. Obviously, he was enjoying the attention like any good cat would.

Belle smiled and stayed there for a couple more hours, just hanging out and making sure everything was in order.

"Anyone hungry? The stew should be edible by this point."

"Edible food sounds good," Andy agreed, getting up and brushing white cat hair from her pants.

Belle got out bowls and passed them around to everyone who wanted food, humming to herself as she did. She ladled stew into the bowls, handing one over to Andy.

"Hopefully it'll taste fine. It would be better if I'd started it early this morning, but oh well."

"In case you haven't noticed, we don't have the time or supplies to really slow-cook anything," Andy replied teasingly. "What you need is a three-pot crock pot set, so you can cook three things at once."

Belle snorted. "I have more pots and pans than that. Besides, I don't slow-cook things very often, mostly just the chili. Basically everything else can be made within an hour."

"Well, regardless, as long as it's edible, I don't mind," Andy said. "We were surviving on fish and rice when you met us, this is amazing compared to that."

Belle laughed quietly. "Well, I'm glad to know that you like my food. I'll have to start coming up with new recipes as we move along. And we still have to find a cow!"

"Yeah, good luck with that," Andy replied, grinning. "How many random cows have you seen wandering around the world?"

"I actually saw a whole herd once," Belle said speculatively. "Just this whole herd of probably fifty plus cows out in the middle of nowhere grazing."

"Interesting..." Andy mused. "Was it on the edge of any dragon-centric territory?" That's the only way it would have made sense, to her.

"Nope. It was between book-land and TV-land. I'm pretty sure on the TV side was some historic show, and on the book side was one of those teenage modern fantasy books." Belle shrugged. "I couldn't explain it."

"No, but we did eat really well," Thomas said with a big grin.

"That's so weird," Andy said. "Just a random herd of cows."

"I know, right? I think that was one of the strangest things I've seen since I've been here." Belle shrugged and took a bite of the stew. "Oh well. I'll see if I can find meat at the next town we come to."

"You'll probably be able to find everything you need," Andy said. "At least, for whatever basics you need. I doubt a town in the middle of nowhere has supplies for gourmet cooking."

"Good thing I don't do gourmet cooking then." Belle grinned and settled down to her stew. "You'll see next time we get to a town. I could probably teach you a couple things if you wanted."

"Maybe," Andy replied. "It sounds like that time I had someone try to teach me to sew. It really didn't work."

Belle bit her lip to keep from commenting or laughing and took another bite of stew quickly. Then yelped when Thomas pulled her into his lap with his normal grin, and she hit him before scooting off again.

Andy laughed a bit and rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything. It was practically normal by now.

Belle grumbled but settled down to wait, petting Dejaal absently. The big cat seemed content to stay there for the time being.

"You seem anxious," Andy commented to Belle. "Are you going to be up all night waiting for someone to practically trip over our camp?"

"No, I'm just gonna wait for another hour and then I think I'm gonna go looking, maybe. Or find a different place to perch and hide." Belle shrugged.